A Valuable Citizen

Just came across this inscription, wanted to share it:

Dear Bob,

I hope you will read and enjoy this book. I thought it was appropriate as you are in a way preparing your self to serve your country, not necessarily as a soldier but as a valuable citizen of the most generous country in the world.

With love and good luck -

Gran'dad

8/9/57

Written in "The Story of George Washington" by Enid LaMonte Meadowcroft. Published by Grosset and Dunlap, 1952.

I agree with Mary. The Gran'dad inscription is clearly dated in 1957, whereas the earliest library due date was either 1976 or 1977, some 20 years later. It's hard to say which, as the stamp was smudged, and partly stamped on the line, both of which serve to obscure the year.

IMO that library was very small-town. In my experience, very few donated books ever get circulated as that one did. Most libraries say they don't have the funds to create the catalog entries necessary to register the book in their collections and other processing procedures necessary to circulate the books, so they sell the donated books and use the funds to purchase new books that have already been processed for circulation. Librarians have told me that it's cheaper to purchase the books already processed than to do that work themselves, but I wonder...

@ mmlamb I remember that some libraries used due date slips like that -- my elementary school, for one. Other libraries had the due date on an index card slipped into a pocket fastened in either the front or sometimes in the back of the books... I frequently used those index cards as a bookmark.